She was interested in arts ever since she was a young girl, often inspired by the limited amount of anime available to her at the time, with a particular fascination for Sailor Moon. Upon being given a choice in her childhood to pursue either piano or art lessons, Karina chose to follow what felt most natural to her, and began learning the art fundamentals that would later lead to the founding of her business. Originally exclusively selling at conventions, Karina’s first in-person sales began while she was in the middle of completing her Fine Arts degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. Despite a focus on drawing mainly human characters, she noticed that the demand for her anime-inspired drawings of animals vastly outweighed that of her art featuring humans. It wasn't until the pandemic that she truly began to reflect on the now-numerous requests she had received to paint people’s pets in her unique style. Despite every convention closing their doors, and having her full-time job disappear overnight, Karina kept motivated by both a drive to improve her ability to draw pets, and by having the time to rebrand her business into the Fioletta Arts as it is known today. What truly sets Karina apart is the blazing speed at which she works, often garnering reactions from bystanders upon seeing her in-person commission turn-around time of only ~20 minutes. She sells everything from keychains to magnets of pets of all shapes and sizes. You’ll often find her engaged in conversation with customers about their pets, and she loves nothing more than the exciting final reveal of a completed live painting.
